Cutie Pie was excited by the last experiment in the kitchen so I thought I’d try some more. I thought since the last experiment we did was seeing what floated we’d stick with that theme and since it was a dreary morning it was the perfect time to try one!
Cutie Pie happened to be eating raisins and I remembered seeing on-line somewhere a while ago an experiment with floating raisins. We filled a medium size mason jar about 2/3 with water, added about 1/3 cup of vinegar and then, one tablespoon at a time added about 3 tbs of baking soda. Then we plopped in a little-boy-size handful of raisins. Then the hard part came after an exciting fizz…we waited for about 1 or 2 minutes. The raisins started ‘dancing’ up and down and danced really well for an hour, and kept dancing off and on for longer than that! Both boys loved watching them while we had our morning snack! The part they seemed to find the most interesting was the bubbling when the baking soda was added.
Cutie Pie wanted to know why they danced and I gave him the simple explanation, because at 3 he couldn’t really handle more. I explained that when the vinegar and baking soda mixed it made lots of bubbles, called carbon dioxide, which attached themselves to the raisins and they lifted the raisins up to the surface. At the surface the bubbles popped and the raisins fell to the bottom where more bubbles attached to the raisins and they floated up again. Of course, I could have said that vinegar is an acid and baking soda is a base, but I think that might have been too much information for him at that point!
I’ll have to try this with my daughter. She would love this! Stopping by from FF!
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Hi there! Stopping by from the Friday follow!
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What a fun activity! I’ll have to try it with my children. I’m sure they would love it. One of my goals is to have more fun with my children.
-April (www.powerofmoms.com)
Oh I just love the “does it sink or float” science game because it’s so easy (for me!) to set up and do – teaches them so much!
PS: I’m not going to mention what those raisins floating in that water might resemble, oh no I am not…
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